Palm announces Palm Pre at CES 2009

0

At a press announcement today at CES, Palm announced a brand spankin’ new handset: the Palm Pre. Running the much-gossiped new Palm WebOS (Not known as “Nova” afterall) and sporting a QWERTY slide-out keyboard below a 3.1″ touchscreen, this might just be enough to get Palm out of their slump.

Here’s what we know so far:

Sprint-bound EVDO Rev A

GPS

8 GB storage

802.11b/g WiFi

Slideout QWERTY keyboard

3.1″ inch touchscreen, 320×480 display

Accelerometer, Proximity, and Ambient light sensors

3.5mm jack

Removable battery

4.8 ounces

MicroUSB connector

Mass storage support

At the bottom of the touchscreen is a designated “Gesture area”, where much of the navigation and app control is handled by simple finger flicks.

Word from the press room is that the new handset, and the new WebOS in general, looks like a winner. As Peter put it during the liveblog, “This is like watching a small, old, stinky dog beat a bigger dog. Finally, Palm, finally.”